A piece on TechVibes quotes a Canalys analyst that says the Surface will fail, much like the Zune did. Their argument: the price is too high. The problem with this is the implied assumption that the target market has price as a main concern. I’m guessing, but it sounds like Canalys believes that the Surface is aimed at the consumer market. When you look at the device, it is really targeted at enterprise customers. As for the commenter on the article that said that “running the same basic stable operating system would make the rest obsolete”: that individual clearly doesn’t understand the market, nor do they understand the relationship between Windows Phone and Windows. Here’s a hint: they share high-level APIs, and some services, but the rest is just a label on a box. The core of the two systems couldn’t be more different. I cannot take an app built for Windows Phone 8 and run it on a Window 8 RT (the ARM-based operating system) machine. As for making everything else “obsolete”: Windows Phone occupies an irrelevant piece of the smartphone market, and hasn’t gained any ground in nearly 2 years. What was supposed to be a game-changer, but never changed the game. It didn’t force the other players to rethink how they participate. Heck, no one knew they were on the field.
Daily Archives: August 4, 2012
Apple’s New Ads Polarizing or Effective?
Apple’s newest “Genius” ads are causing a bit of stir. They are a different style and philosophy than ads from recent years, and have been called everything from “horrible” to “cringeworthy”. In actuality, they are similar to most of the “trying to be funny” ads that you see on TV. Think of most of the ads that try for humour. While a small few are genuinely funny, most are somewhere between “meh” and corny. As for the Apple ads, despite current criticism, they are far from “the worst ads Apple has ever made”. There is a piece on Forbes that outlines past ads that are far, far worse than the Genius ads. But what about these current Genius ads? Are they really that bad?
